Athletes

In athletes, injury to tendon, ligament, muscle, bone and cartilage is conventionally treated with rest/splinting,rehabilitation exercise, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), and surgery where indicated.

To increase the speed and depth of tissue repair, there is an emerging science of biological therapies that use patient-own tissues to accelerate and intensify the healing process of injury and post-surgical tissue repair.

Autologous (patients’ own tissue) biological (from live tissue) therapies are the subject of research with promising results, and include:

· Platelet rich plasma (PRP);

· Orthokine;

· Bone marrow concentrate (BMC); and

· Adipose (fat) derived mesenchymal stem cells (pericytes).

By delivering a concentration of these reparative cells and messengers to the site of injury, repair and recovery are augmented.

That means getting back to rehabilitation, training and playing faster.

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)

PRP is a concentrate of platelets from the circulating blood. Platelets can be harvested by taking blood, and then it is processed with sophisticated technology, separated, and concentrated from the whole blood.

Platelets are the cells that arrive first to the site of injury as soon as capillaries have been broken. They are the component of blood that initiates clotting around the injury site, they concentrate in the area, influence healing of the tissue by the release of a vast array of peptides called growth factors.

Treatment is administered once, twice or sometimes three times at monthly intervals as dictated by the extent of ongoing healing required by the injury.

Read about PRP in the detailed brochure on the subject.

Orthokine

Orthokine is a patented way of extracting
physiological cell messengers from whole blood, to be used more as an
anti-inflammatory. Anti-inflammatory action has a similar outcome to
cortisone, only the effects last very much longer, and there are none of
the side effects associated with cortisone injections.

Read about Orthokine in the dedicated brochure on the subject.

Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC)

BMAC is the use of the cells from concentrated/separated Bone Marrow which is derived from the patient’s ilium bone.

It is more potent than PRP and is thus used when PRP is deemed not potent enough to deal with the injuries that are present.

Read about BMAC in the detailed brochure on the subject.

Which one is for me?

By
history taking, clinical examination and radiological studies, a good
understanding and assessment of the orthopaedic issues in the injured
athlete is made by the medical team. With this understanding, the most
appropriate treatment can be decided upon in a discussion with the
patient/athlete.

The injection of biological therapies would be
part of an integrated approach to recovery, along with appropriate
rehab, training and surgery, if required.